The present invention relates to a hollow structure.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
It is known in the art to produce cross members or longitudinal members for motor vehicles in the form of hollow members which are made from light metal alloy. This permits a certain freedom in terms of malleability of the cross section of the structure in order to realize appropriate stiffness or functional attachments. At the same time, the slight own weight and the possibility to manufacture the respective products through an extrusion process enable reliable production and yet to meet the demands for a consistent implementation of lightweight construction.
Oftentimes, the hollow members need to be provided on their outer surface area with a flange. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of such a conventional hollow structure 1 having a hollow member 2 and a flange 4 which protrudes from an outer surface area 3 of the hollow member 2. The flange 4 extends in longitudinal direction 5 of the hollow member for attachment of further parts, not shown here. The hollow member 2 has a hollow chamber which is closed in cross section. FIG. 2 shows a cross sectional view of another conventional hollow structure in which a flange 7 is coupled to the outer surface area 3 of the hollow member 2 by two joining seams 8. When exposed to a tensile force applied in force direction F, this type of hollow structure rapidly reaches its limits when exposed to stress.
It would be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved hollow structure which obviates prior art shortcomings and which is easy to make in a cost-efficient manner while still being lightweight and flexible in terms of disposition and orientation.